


the star thieves

by veggiemom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 14:49:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4225983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veggiemom/pseuds/veggiemom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You'll forget soon too, Jasper. You and I are never leaving this place." — In which Lapis and Jasper find a single second to talk within the midst of their constant battle with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the star thieves

“Can you see the stars from here, Jasper?”

Lapis speaks, breaking the relentlessly cold silence in the space inside of Malachite’s mind. It’s the first time her voice doesn’t leave her lips in the form of a scream or cry, and her articulation is telltale of the battle they’ve been fighting. Her tone is scratchy and broken down, just as her body is. She breathes in heavy gasps of air and pants as she slides weakly down a wall of jade water, her eyes threatening to fall closed.

She won’t let them close, though. She reminds herself just where she is and that she cannot allow her breath to be this ragged and her body to be this beaten down and she tightens her hold around the chains that bide Jasper underneath her, to remind Jasper that she is still in control of their twisted fusion.

Briefly, she wonders if she’s tightening their chains to remind herself that she holds the reigns, but shrugs the thought away.

Jasper doesn’t answer her question, which both surprises Lapis and at the same time, doesn’t surprise her at all. Jasper does nothing but scream profanities and threats at her, degrading her with every frustrated word that comes screeching from her mouth. She figures she hardly wants to engage in small talk here and now, especially when the both of them are finally too exhausted to fight each other off.

“For me, all the stars are gone,” Lapis continues to fill the stale emptiness between them as she tilts her head up, looking at nothing but the swaying waves above their prison of her own design. “Every single one has disappeared. The cosmos have been erased and there’s no night sky… it’s all gone.”

Lapis pauses and wonders if a place such as that ever really existed.

“It’s all gone.” Lapis repeats, her voice darkening.

“Why are you still talking?” Jasper says, finally speaking through her stubbornness and anger. It doesn’t take more than a word spoken for Lapis to hear how terribly hoarse Jasper sounds, nearing a state of complete brokenness.

Lapis thinks on the question, the corners of her lips threatening to tilt into a smile. She thinks it’s all so ridiculous it makes her want to laugh and it makes her want to cry. To converse with both her prisoner and executioner is completely crass.

“I don’t know.” She answers back, her voice wavering.

Jasper laughs for Lapis instead. Lapis doesn’t know if she’s laughing at her or if she’s also near hysterically abhorred by what they’re doing here together, inside of Malachite’s consciousness. No matter what her laughter is directed at, she doesn’t sound humored or happy.

“I don’t have to answer you.”

“No, you don’t have to answer me.” Lapis whispers.

Water drips and crashes.

“I can’t see them.” Jasper says.

“I thought you weren’t going to answer me.”

“Shut up!” Jaspers barks, but coughs when she exerts herself. Lapis has grown used to Jasper’s rage and hardly bats an eye. “I can’t see them… but I remember them. I’d be weak to ever forget. Are you weak, Lapis?”

Lapis says nothing, but steadies her holds on the chains she holds Jasper down with. It is a threatening answer.

Jasper scoffs.

“It’s hard to remember anything down here.” Lapis says, and then presses, “What do they look like, Jasper?”

“Let me out and I'll show them to you. You can see everything. The stars, the cosmos… every phase of the moon.” Jasper challenges, a devilish but unsuccessful attempt at seduction.

Lapis tilts her head down to gaze underneath her feet to where Jasper stares daggers into her, hatred claiming her every feature. She stares back into Jasper’s eyes with no fear. There is nothing left for her to be afraid of.

“You’ll forget soon too, Jasper,” When she speaks, she can see battle stir inside the other gem, renewed once more.

“You and I are never leaving this place.”

**Author's Note:**

> free them


End file.
